SSN is a digest of the day's soccer/football/futbol articles with a focus on the top European leagues and the United States National Team. Below, you’ll find links to articles and video, as well as additional features and commentary. We locate the top news of the day so you can stay updated with ease.

Friday, July 16, 2010

In Madrid, Raul is close to royalty, and the club's leading goalscorer. Along with another club favourite, the midfielder Guti, the pair are as much a part of Real as the famous white shirts and notorious grand plans to rule the world – but it appears their reigns are at an end. Both players made their debuts here 16 and 15 years ago respectively, despite having long since stopped commanding regular first-team places. Both have survived 14 different coaches. But neither will see in the Mourinho era. Jose told them there was no need to turn up yesterday. Officially they have been allowed time to "sort out their futures" – and unofficially told not to come back.

A Catholic priest who made headlines around the world by holding an orange mass to pray for the Dutch team before its World Cup final against Spain has been suspended by his bishop, a parish official said on Friday.

All good things must come to an end, and thus 32-year-old Thierry Henry drew the curtain on what has been an illustrious international career on Thursday afternoon. The circumstances surrounding the forward’s decision to quit the France set-up were as disappointing as his decision was unsurprising, but in time ‘Titi’ will look back on a spell with les Bleus spanning 13 record breaking years and including two major competition victories.

As the world's biggest sporting event ended this week, the hangover is just in its first stages but relief has come to the United States in the form of the planet's most valuable (estimated to be worth $1.8 billion) sports club, Manchester United of the English Premier League.

To kick-off the new term, we have David Beckham on why he used his substantial down time at AC Milan to build the Taj Mahal out of Lego, former Heavy Weight Champion of the World Mike Tyson eking out a living at Peterborough and the A-Team riding to the rescue of Manchester City.

And the 44-year-old former undisputed heavyweight champion, looking trim in a blue strip with ‘Tyson 1’ embossed on the back of the shirt, failed to inspire the Peterborough, who went down 2-1 to West Ham.

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

The hard of heart would say that there is only one true winner at a World Cup and 31 losers. But the past month and the showcase of soccer gave everyone involved the chance to grab their moment in the spotlight.

Welcome back, MLS fans. Major League Soccer is hoping there are a lot more of you now, after the soccer buzz provided by the World Cup. And for long time supporters, those new to the game, and those in between, America's league is confident it has something to offer you this summer.

MLS forgives you if your soccer attention has been elsewhere for the last month. In case you didn't notice -- and who could blame you, with the games in Africa taking up all the column space? -- the league shut down for the group stages this year. The strategy this time around, rather than going head-to-head with the world's biggest sporting event, is to take the momentum built by the World Cup and run with it.

A European team has finally won the World Cup outside its home continent.

More than that, for the first time since 1954, Europe is now ahead of South America in the number of World Cup wins - with a strong advantage. Europe has staged the tournament 10 times and South America just four - but in 2014 the World Cup will return to the continent of its birth for the first time in 36 years.

"None of these projects have taken off because all of the money is coming from the public sector; a very, very good indication that they are not financially viable," says Christopher Gaffney, a geography professor at the Universidade Federal Fluminense in Rio, who describes the stadiums as a "disaster foretold".

Torres pulled up in the dying moments of Spain's World Cup final victory over Netherlands and, following a scan at the Centro de Madrid Clinic on Tuesday, the Spanish football federation has now confirmed there is evidence of "a grade one muscle fibre rupture in the left thigh".

The 32-year-old is France's all-time record goalscorer having scored 51 times for les Bleus and he also broke Ian Wright's record for Arsenal, scoring 226 goals between 1999 and 2007 as he cemented his reputation as one of the finest players in world football.

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Overall, I must say it was a wonderful experience to be in South Africa for this World Cup.

Perhaps watching at home it won't be considered a vintage tournament, but over in South Africa they've moved a country forward five years in five weeks.

The warmth, the fellowship and the unification of so many disparate strands in their society made this World Cup work. They understand each other so much better now and I hope that continues. It was more than just a sporting event for the South Africans and they showed what they can do. Like may others I was thrilled by the experience.

The return to the World Cup of Diego Maradona. No one knew what to expect as he strode out to the touchline looking like an extra from Goodfellas for the first match against Nigeria, but he actually left South Africa with his reputation enhanced. An authentic sporting legend.

The plain truth is this: most South Africans want the World Cup to go on forever. They want to see the flags festooning every building, hear the noise of someone's random vuvuzela blurting into their conversations every day and see foreign visitors who had such awful perceptions about this place taking so much pleasure from it. They won't mind the traffic jams as team buses or delegations of officials go past, they won't mind the endless queuing to shuffle into stadiums, they won't even mind if it has to remain winter until the end of time, as long as the World Cup stays.

At the end of Spain's first match at this World Cup, a 1-0 loss to Switzerland, Sara Carbonero was waiting in the tunnel for Iker Casillas, clutching a microphone. Now, for those who have not been acquainted with her, Carbonero is a journalist and interviewer with the Spanish television channel TeleCinco. She is also Casillas' girlfriend. Not that you would have known it as she held out the microphone and asked bluntly: "How did you manage to lose that?" Casillas barely looked her in the eye, mumbled some cliché and departed.

Landon Donovan is on the line from California. It's just after dawn on the West Coast of the United States, which is symbolic in a way, considering a new phase is dawning in Donovan's career after his standout performance at this World Cup. Donovan scored three goals in South Africa, including the one to beat Algeria that many are calling the biggest goal in U.S. Soccer history. Donovan's star power in America took a giant leap over the past month. So what comes next?